Ptjmp



Patented June 18, 1929.

UNITED STATES IRA A. WEAVER, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.

PUMP.

Application filed March 31, 1927.

My invention concerns pumps and similar appliances adapted to pump liquids containing abradant materials, such as grit or sand, or containing acids or other ingredients having a tendency to wear, corrode, or otherwise injure the parts of the mechanism.

Such an improved and novel pump is especially valuable. in dealing with. oil containing sand, the latter quickly cutting and injuring the metal parts of ordinary pumps and rendering them either inefficient in action or practically or wholly inoperative.

In extremely deep oil wells, the expense of withdrawing the pump for repairs and the loss of production incident thereto, is frequently prohibitive requiring that many such wells be abandoned, resulting in an obvious economic loss. A salient feature of the new construction is the provision of multiple valves therein which come into action automatically in suecession as the others become worn out due to the enormous pressure of the liquid containing the abradant with which they cooperate in the pumping operation.

The new pump is also so designed that the footvalve mechanism may be withdrawn with the removal of the plunger.

In order to enable those skilled in this art to fully understand the invention both from structural and functional standpoints, in the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, I have illustrated a present desirable and preferred embodiment of the invention and in the views of this drawing like reference characters have been employed to designate the same parts of the structure.

In this drawing:

Figure 1 is a central vertical section through the top portion of the pump showing its plunger rod associated with a supplemental pump; and

Figure 2 is a vertical central section through the lower portion of the pump.

Referring to such drawing, it will be perceived that the pump includes a round cylinder or casing 11 open its lower end at 12 and provided internally ad acent thereto with a cgnipal seat 13.

1 dindcr is dcsirahl' ma. .jof seam Serial No. 179,830.

less drawn tubing, reamed and polished to a fine high finish, so that the leather packing referred to hereinafter will not wear unduly under the enormous pressure under which the pump functions.

The pump includes a plunger characterized as a whole 14 havin an intermediate section 15 of large diameter slightly less than the internal caliber of the cylinder, an upper reduced diameter portion 16, and a lower part 17 also of less diameter.

A tubular rod 18, conveniently of seamless drawn tubing, is screwed into the hollow threaded interior of the upper portion 16 of the plunger, and the chamber therein with which it communicates is connected by a plurality of passages 19, 21 with a groove 22 around the exterior of the portion 17 of the plunger, the rod 18 being joined at its upper end with a pump 23 adapted to force down through it any suitable cleaning liquid charged with air or the like.

In case oil is pumped by the plunger 14, then such cleaning liquid could be clean oil charged or laden with air bubbles, or, in case the pump is handling an acid, the supplemental liquid could be of a neutralizing charactor and likewise charged with air or a gas.

In order to be effective in the performance of its intended function, such auxiliary liquid should be pumped or forced down the tubular red at a pressure greater than that at which the main pump is working.

Channel 22 cooperates with a somewhat wider groove 23 on the inside of a sleeve valve 24 around and movable slightly lengthwise of the plunger section 17, the lower end of the sleeve-valve member having a conical valve surface 25 adapted to coact with a mating or correlated surface 26 on the upper end of a sleeve 27 screwed on to the lower threaded section of the plunger.

A leather or other suitable packing 28 is held on the sleeve-valve element between its enlarged lower end or head 29 and a sleeve 31 screwed on the valve-member 2 1 and a similar packing 32 is clamped between the part 31 and another holding sleeve 33 screwed on the upper part of the sleevevalv' 2st, e11 cirariy sheen in t Part 24 has a flaring valve face 34 designed and arranged to coact with a companion conical surface 35 of the plunger 14 near the junction of its intermediate and lower sections 15 and 17 respectively.

Thus the valveanember 24, by means of its double packing, has a tight sliding fit in the cylinder and may move longitudinally a small distance relative to the plunger on which it is loosely mounted and these two parts, the plunger and the valve member, may

e considered as conjointly forming a plunger or piston proper, even though these elements are movable a limited distance relative to one another.

A gutter or trough 36 in the upper surface of the part 15 of the plunger connects with a plurality of passages 37, 37 extended downwardly through the full length of the plunger portion 17 being open at their lower ends thereby communicating directly with the larger passage through the threaded sleeve 2'7.

A hollow follower 38 is screwed on to the sleeve 27 and internally it accommodates an externally-tapered, centrally-apertured, renewable valve seat member 39 having a seating surface 41 with which a ball-valve 42 cooperates, the latter being housed in a cage or skeleton member 43, which, with the part 39 on which it bears, is held firmly in place by the lower end of the'sleeve 27 all as is clearly depicted.

So far as this part of the appliance is concerned, it functions substantially as follows;

On the upward stroke of the plunger, the lower conical end of the sleeve-valve member rests or bears on the sloping surface 26 of the sleeve 27, which, of course, is fixed to and travels with the plunger, the groove 22 being fully uncovered by the channel 23, so that the air-laden sealing-liquid forced down the tube 18 is discharged ruiiwardly between the sleeve-valve member and the plunger section. 1.7 and between the valve faces 34 and into the annular space above the sleevevalve packing so that abradant-laden liquid which is being pumped by the appliance can not come into contact with the packing where it would wear the latter and the cylinderwall.

The larger part 15 of the plunger is desirinder wall causes the valve member 24 to move upwardly relatively to the plunger closing the annular port between the valve seats 34 and which will not be in contact with one another, thereby cutting off the delivery of the sealing-liquid above the packing, but permitting it to flow down between the plunger and the loosely encasing valve mom-- her and be discharged through the now open port between the valve faces 25 and 26 below the packing where it can clean the cylinder wall. of abradant in advance of the downwardly moving packing and thereby prevent any detrimental" effect thereof on such packing or the cylinder wall.

As the pressure is small during such downstroke of the plunger only a reduced quantity of cleansing liquid is required at that time and this result is accomplished by so locating the channel 23 in the sleeve-valve memher that the annular port 22 will. be partly closed. when the member 24 is in such posi tion that the faces and 35 are in contact, that is, during the descent of the plunger.

In. order to prevent the column of oil or other liquid from coming to absolute or complete rest and to cushion the inertia in effect on the upward stroke, the air or other gas forced down thehollow plunger rod with the sealing cleansing liquid is employed.

The foot-valve mechanism may be withdrawn with the pump plunger for repairsor replacement and withoutturning the plungerrod to operatively engage the valve-mechanism as is required in some constructions,

This portion of the new pump comprises the following specified cooperating instrumentalities.

A pipe 44 is screwed into the lower threaded end of the follower 38, its lower cud having a number of apertures 45, 45 to allow the liquid to pass through on the downward stroke of the plunger and having a central hole 46 loosely accommodating a rod 47 with a head 48 on its upper end larger than the aperture 46, such pipe and rod being of a length longer than the plunger stroke so as not to interfere with the latter, that is to say, the play or looseness between them permits the pump plunger to function in the usual way without interference.

The lower end of rod 47 is screwedv into a threaded aperture in a connecting-member 49 having several apertures 50 therethrough and screwed into a housing 51 having a conical seat 52 on which bears a hollow, renewable Valve-seat element 53, the base portion of a valve-cage 54 being held firmly in position between the parts 49 and 53 and a ball-valve 55 being present in the age and designed, when permitted to do so, to cooperate with the adjacent valve-seat of member 58 just below it and close the central passage through the latter.

Normally, however, as shown in Figure 2, such ball-valve is held or maintained lifted off of its adjacent seat by reason of its resting on the top of an upright central extension or post 56 of a skeleton or cage-member 57 into the lower end of which a hollow valve-member 58 is screwed, the latter element having a conical valve-seat 59 cooperating with a ballvalve 61 in the cage 57 and having a lower conical valve-seat 60.

As shown, suitable packing 62 is clamped between the parts 57 and 58 so that such united elements 57 and 58, which under certain circumstances are vertically shiftable in the cylindrical compartment of the element 51, will have a liquid-tight fit therein.

These joined parts 57 and 58 are normally held elevated with the former bearing against a shoulder 63 of the housing 51 by a coiled spring 64 pressing upwardly against the under face of the valve-member 58, its lower end bearing on the top of a skeleton cage 65 resting on a renewable or replaceable hollow valve-seat member equipped with a conical valve-seat 69 with which a ball-valve 71 in the cage 65 isadapted to cooperate and having a tapered fit 66, 67 with a valve-housing 68 screwed into the lower end of the housing 51, an appropriate packing 72 being held between such housing 68 and valve 73 screwed on to the bottom end of part 68 and having a tapered seat 74 bearing on the companion seat 13 of the main cylinder.

From the above description of the construction, it will be obvious that so long as the primary foot-valve 71 is properly operative and holds the column of liquid above it without substantial leakage, the supplemental or auxiliary valves 55 and 61 will be functionless or inactive, but, when such valve 71 leaks due to wear or otherwise, the plunger 57, 62, 58 will be forced down by the column of liquid above it against the action of the spring, thus lowering the extension 56 and permitting the valve 55 to close and,'in effect, performing the function of the worn and now more or less useless valve 71.

Inasmuch as such secondary valve 55, under the circumstances specified, closes gradually to support the load, its effective and eflicient operative life should be longer than that of valve 71 which naturally closes quickly when operating properly and correctly.

When, in time, through wear, valve 55 also leaks as well as valve 71, such leakage pres sure causes the plunger 57, 58, 62, to descend and become seated on the fixed surface 70, thus giving the valve-seat 59 a positive stationary position, thereby rendering its valve 61 operative as the final substitute for the other two now partially-inoperative valves 71 and 55, and the appliance may continue in satisfactory operation until such last reserve valve fin ally fails to function with reasonable efiiciency, whereupon the multi-valve mechanism may be withdrawn upwardly with the main pump plunger and be repaired for fur ther use.

It may be noted that such triple valve mechanism is so designed and constructed, that, should the spring break, or any one of the parts become loosened or broken, one of the three valves would continue to act.

Inasmuch as both of the reserve valves become operative gradually rather than suddenly under great pressure, their operative life is lengthened, thus maintaining the appliance as a whole in satisfactory service over an extended period.

The entire pump is so designed that many of its parts may be economically made on an ordinary automatic screw-machine, and all of the threaded parts are straight so that the elements of the construction when assembled will be in desirable absolute alignment.

Many minor mechanical changes may be made in the structure presented without departure from the heart and essence of the invention as defined by the appended claims and without the sacrifice of any of its substantial benefits and advantages.

Some of the features of the construction illustrated and described constitute the subject-matter of my divisional patent application Serial No. 224,806, filed October 8, 1927.

1. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a normally-inoperative secondary foot-valve in said cylinder, and means to render said secondaryfoot-valve operative automatically upon the occurrence of impaired action of said primary foot-valve.

2. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a first footvalve in said cylinder, a second normally-incperative foot-valve in said cylinder, a third normallyinoperative foot valve in said cylinder, and means to render said second foot-valve operative automatically upon the occurrence of impaired action of said first footvalve and to render said third foot-valve operative automatically upon the occurrence of impaired action of said second foot-valve.

3. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in. said cylinder, a secondary foot-valve in said cylinder, and means to hold said secondary foot-valve from its seat so long as said primary foot-valve functions properly and to permit said secondary valve to seat and become operative upon the occurrence of impaired action of said primary foot-valve.

4. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a secondary foot-valve in said cylinder, and yielding means to hold said secondary foot-va1ve from its seat so long as said primary foot-valve functions properly and upon compression to permit said secondary valve to seat and become operative upon the occurrence of impaired action of said primary valve.

5. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a secondary foot-valve in said cylinder, and a spring-pressed slidable plunger to hold said secondary foot-valve oil of its seat so long as said primary foot-valve functions properly and upon compression to permit said secondary valve to seat and become operative upon the occurrence of impaired action of said primary valve.

6. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate. said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a ported slidable plunger, a supplemental foot-valve and its valve-seat for said port carried by said plunger, a stop, a spring acting on said slidable plunger normally maintaining it'away from said stop thus rendering said supplemental valve inoperative until the action of said primary valve becomes impaired.

7. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger therein, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a, ported slidable plunger, a supplemental foot-valve and its valve-seat for said port carried by said plunger, a stop,

' stop, thus rendering said supplemental valve inoperative until the action of said primary valve becomes impaired.

8. In a pump, the combination of a. cylinder, a reciprocatory plunger in said cylinder, means to operate said plunger, a primary foot-valve in said cylinder, a supplemental foot-valve in said cylinder, a ported plunger slidable in said cylinder, an auxiliary footvalve mounted in said ported plunger and controlling the port thereof, said three footvalves being in series relation, means on said ported plunger to normally hold said supplemental ifoot-valve from its seat, a spring normally holding said ported plunger in such position as to maintain said supplemental-.

valve unseated, and a stop to limit the descent of said ported plunger, the latter having a permissible movement greater than that required to permit said supplemental-valve to become operative, whereby said supplemental foot-valve will automatically become operative upon the action of said primary :Eootvalve becoming impaired, and said auxiliary foot-valve will be automatically rendered operative upon said supplemental valve becoming leaky.

9. In a pump, the combination of a cylinder, a valve-seat member having a bearing in said cylinder, an adjustable valve-cage holding said valve-seat member on its bearing in said cylinder, and a valve in said valve-cage cooperating with said valve-seat member.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

IRA A. WEAVER. 

